The port securityscape an ethnography by Yarin Eski Thesis submitted in fulfilment for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Social and Political Sciences University of Glasgow Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research 63 Gibson Street Glasgow G12 8LR Scotland Prof Fergus McNeill (first supervisor) Prof Simon Mackenzie (second supervisor) Dr Nicole Bourque (internal examiner) Prof Ian Loader (external examiner) Abstract 9/11 changed the face of maritime transport that is responsible for moving 80% of everything we consume. Ports are vital hubs in that maritime transport and any disruption there instantly affects global trade. To protect the global supply chain from crime and terrorism, both must be disrupted locally in the port by port police and security officers that are responsible for port security at operational level. Public and critical criminological attention to these key security actors, however, is virtually non-existent. This thesis therefore explores how their occupational realities and identities are (re)established in two major European ports, by providing an ethnographic account. To do so, the thesis builds on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in the ports of Rotterdam and Hamburg between 2011 and 2012, during which everyday policing and security work has been documented, followed by a thematic analysis. The key argument runs thus: the port is a local space for the global trade, which is underappreciated and underestimated by the public, and has its police and security professionals in place both aboard and on shore who protect and defend that vital trade site. The aggressive commercialist governmentality that goes on behind that vital global trade is unwillingly yielded to by these guardians but not without any bottom-up resistance. They condemn the volatile commercialist governmentality that is embodied in management, competitive and careerist colleagues and authoritarian multi-agency partners, as well as in port companies and shipping companies. The State and global market they protect, is simultaneously a threat to them. This contradiction influences their occupational identity, making it inherently conflicted and affecting their performance in the port securityscape to the extent it can create threatening situations that cause the very dangers they are supposed to prevent and eradicate. 2 Table of contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................. 2 Table of contents .............................................................................................................. 3 List of tables ..................................................................................................................... 6 List of figures .................................................................................................................... 6 Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... 7 Author’s declaration ......................................................................................................... 9 Abbreviations .................................................................................................................. 10 Introduction.................................................................................................................... 13 Chapter 1 Imagining the port securityscape .................................................................. 17 1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 17 1.2 The criminological imagination ............................................................................................... 17 1.3 What is security? A critical consideration .............................................................................. 19 1.3.1 Security: a concept by and for the State ......................................................................... 19 1.3.2 Security, the State and globalisation ................................................................................ 21 1.3.3 Neoliberalism and the security market ........................................................................... 22 1.4 Concise histories of the ports of Rotterdam and Hamburg ............................................... 27 1.4.1 What’s in a name? .............................................................................................................. 27 1.4.2 Origins and historical development of the Rotterdam and Hamburg ports ............. 28 1.4.3 Modernity, neoliberalism and globalisation ................................................................... 30 1.5 Post-9/11 securitisation of the Rotterdam and Hamburg ports ........................................ 34 1.5.1 Paving the way ................................................................................................................... 34 1.5.2 The ISPS Code explained ................................................................................................. 36 1.5.3 Hidden agendas and the port securityscape ................................................................... 38 1.6 Police and security occupational cultures .............................................................................. 41 1.7 Subconclusion ............................................................................................................................ 43 Chapter 2 An ethnographic approach ............................................................................ 45 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 45 2.2 Criminological understanding and ethnography ................................................................... 45 2.2.1 Qualitative criminology and port security ...................................................................... 45 2.2.2 Verstehen ............................................................................................................................ 48 2.2.3 Why ethnography? ............................................................................................................. 49 2.3 The multi-sited field .................................................................................................................. 51 2.3.1 Entering the port securityscape ....................................................................................... 52 2.3.2 The participants, sites and fieldwork .............................................................................. 56 2.3.3 Becoming an insider .......................................................................................................... 59 2.4 Practical and ethical issues ....................................................................................................... 62 2.4.1 Commuting and exhaustion ............................................................................................. 62 3 2.4.2 Informed consent .............................................................................................................. 63 2.4.3 Recording ............................................................................................................................ 65 2.4.4 Personal safety and security ............................................................................................. 66 2.5 Analysis of identity .................................................................................................................... 69 2.5.1 Transcribing and thematic analysis ................................................................................. 69 2.5.2 Understanding identity formation through othering .................................................... 69 2.5.3 My researching Self and the researched Other: an account of reflexivity ................. 75 2.6 Subconclusion ............................................................................................................................ 77 Chapter 3 Management, colleagues and partners ......................................................... 78 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 78 3.2 Against management ................................................................................................................. 78 3.2.1 Lacking operational port security sense ......................................................................... 78 3.2.2 Betrayal and exploitation .................................................................................................. 82 3.3 Inclusion and exclusion amongst colleagues ......................................................................... 89 3.3.1 Teamwork and trust .......................................................................................................... 89 3.3.2 Competition and distrust .................................................................................................. 95 3.4 Multi-agency cooperation, misunderstanding and rivalry .................................................. 106 3.4.1 Port police vs. security .................................................................................................... 107 3.4.2 Security vs. port police ...................................................................................................